what would buddha do?

I've been a vegetarian since I was 7 years old, but I never thought of vegetarianism (or veganism) as an environmental issue. I just didn't like the thought of eating cute little cows and chickens. But I've recently become aware (partly thanks to a recent NY Times article called "Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler") of how much energy and space is required to raise animals for meat, and what terrible effects this has on the environment.

The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that one fifth of the world's greenhouse gases are the result of livestock production (making it a larger contributor to climate change than transportation). The world’s total meat supply was 71 million tons in 1961. In 2007, it was estimated to be 284 million tons. Nevermind the ethical issues related to raising animals in order to kill and eat them, but there just isn't enough land to support our planet's hamburger habit. Livestock production leads to deforestation (just in the past five months, 1,250 square miles of rainforest in Brazil were lost to livestock production) - both to raise the livestock and to produce the feed for the livestock.

But what if we decided we could do without the meat, or, at least, eat less of it? Even if you switch one meat meal for a vegetarian meal every week, that's a big difference. The National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan estimated that 2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.

So here's my meat substitution suggestion for those of you living in Tel Aviv: Buddha Burgers. Delicious, "meaty", and totally guilt free. This vegan burger place has two branches - one on 21 Yehuda Halevi (which is bigger and has more seating room) and one on 86 Ibn Gvirol. Along with a variety of vegan burgers, Buddha Burgers offers healthy juice drinks, salads, and vegan desserts. Who said trading in your ground beef burger had to be a sacrifice?

the incredible bulk

Hulk, bulk, shmulk. He's green, so it sort of counts. And he rhymes, too.

In an attempt to reduce the amounts of garbage that my food consumption generates, I've started buying as many of my dry foods in bulk as possible. Not only does this reduce the packaging (and garbage) associated with the food I eat, but it also means that the energy used to get my food to me (such as the gas used to transport the food) is more efficient. It is much more efficient for a truck (or van, or whatever) to transport large bulk bags of a product as opposed to a much lesser quantity of individually packaged products. Plus, since it is much more efficient means of food supply, it is way cheaper to buy food in bulk.

If you live in Tel Aviv, then your average AM:PM definitely won't have a bulk food section. But if you go to some of the health food stores that are all over Tel Aviv, it's easy to find a wide variety of foods offered in bulk. My favorite is Nitsat Haduvdevan at 58 Ibn Gvirol. They have a really big selection, and the products that I get there in bulk are always a fraction of the price of their packaged counterpart. Their bulk products range from grains to dehydrated vegetables, to all kinds of flour, legumes, nuts, and dried fruits. Teva Castel, which has stores all over Tel Aviv (including a really nice new one on the corner of Dizengoff and Frishman), also has a big bulk selection that includes spice blends and granola. The Organic Market at 59 Sheinkin Street has a small bulk foods section, but they offer organic bulk products. It's definitely the yuppiest store of all three.

Buying in bulk means you need to figure out your own means of packaging the food, though. I keep a bunch of reused plastic bags for buying bulk foods in my bag so that I have them whenever I want to go shopping. Then I transfer the food into reused glass jars and containers when I get home so that I can reuse the plastic bag instead of consuming another one the next time. A little fanatic, but plastic is bad.

one recyle, two recycle, freecyle, four

Freecycle. Until recently, I didn't really understand what this catchy name meant. I mean, I got the "free" part, and I got the "recycle" part, but I didn't really understand how they went together. Wasn't recycling always free?

Until I joined the Freecycle Tel Aviv group, which is part of the larger Freecycle network. Freecyle is a grassroots, non-profit movement of people who are giving away and receiving items for free (and preventing stuff from ending up in landfills). You can easily recycle paper or aluminum cans or plastic bottles, but it's a little harder to figure out how to recycle that kitchen appliance that's in good condition but that you just don't use, or that old piece of furniture that you don't want anymore. You would feel bad throwing those kinds of things away, but just don't know who would want them. Enter freecycle. Freecycle connects people within the same area so that those trying to get rid of things can post a message to the group and give their items to someone nearby. Conversely, if someone is looking for a particular item, he or she can post a message to the group asking if anyone has one to give away. Unlike craigslist, this all takes place without the exchange of money. It is truly "free recycling".

The Freecycle Network, which was recently the subject of a New York Times article, is composed of 4234 groups with 4,449,618 members around the world and it is constantly growing. Recent items I've seen offered on Freecycle Tel Aviv include closets, printers, scanners, small ovens, furniture, and more. The people offering these items are genuinely happy to give them away.

There are additional freecycle groups in Jerusalem, Ashkelon, Yokneam Ilit, Zichron Yaacov-Alona, Herzliya, and Ramallah. Even if you have nothing that you want to "freecycle", its worth joining the group - you never know what you might find.

i struck oil!

My most recent bottle of olive oil, which came from my infamous Moroccan grandmother, was in a Jagermeister bottle. Not because my grandmother is an alcoholic, but because she buys olive oil in big containers and then distributes the oil into glass bottles (that she reuses from other products, such as Jagermeister). Without even knowing it, she's reusing resources and reducing consumption of packaging.

It's not easy to buy olive oil in bulk when you live in a city, though. Even though I would like to buy it in bulk and reduce the packaging associated with olive oil, especially since it's something I use on a daily basis, I just figured it was pretty much impossible since I currently live in a city. I thought I'd just rely on my grandmother for all of my bulk olive oil needs.

But no more! Today I passed by Shook Levinsky (a great market for bulk dry goods) on my way home to pick up some loose black tea and found an olive oil store that lets you bring your own glass bottles from home and fill them from an olive oil tap that they have in the store. Some of the types of olive oil that they carry are even organic. The owner of the store is very nice and will let you try the different kinds of olive oil, too. The store - called "Hamesik shel Oded (המסיק של עודד)" - is located at the corners of Levinsky Street and Hachaluzim Street.

If you do decide to go there, my grandmother swears by keeping olive oil in dark glass bottles such as - you guessed it - Jagermeister.

a novel idea

I love to read. Especially during the winter. Who doesn't love to curl up with a cup of tea, a blanket, and a good book?

The downside? Books are made of paper, and paper is made of trees. And I love trees. As with many other things, though, the energy and resources required to support our reading habits could be significantly reduced if people did one simple thing - share. Borrow books from a library, buy used books and then re-sell them, share books with friends, and... swap books with strangers.

How can you swap books with strangers if, well, you don't know them? For the English readers out there, there's a great website called AngloBooks that allows people to post whatever books they have lying around, see what books other people have, and swap. The service is free, and there are book swappers listed from all over the country (Haifa, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Raanana, Rechovot...). All kinds of genres are available, ranging from literature, to travel, to mystery and romance novels. Signing up is very easy, too.

Happy book sharing!

reincarnating my carrot peels

Since I live in Tel Aviv (in an apartment that's smaller than my parent's living room), I don't really have access to a garden or any type of planted area and so there's not really any space for me to compost my organic kitchen scraps. Sure, there's public gardens around, but I'm not sure how the Tel Aviv Municipality would react to my construction of a compost heap in the middle of a playground. Actually, I can pretty much imagine.

That's why I was so excited when someone posted an invitation to use their compost heap in the center of Tel Aviv last week on Freecycle (Freecycle is an amazing network, better than Craigslist, to be explained in a later post). Not many people get excited about composting their onion peels and lemon rinds. I do.

After reading that invitation I immediately starting separating my organic scraps (food waste, food gone bad, dust, hair, cloth, torn up paper) from my other garbage and this morning I headed over to the compost heap, which is located in the back garden of an apartment building on 8 Ha'Avoda Street (near the corner of King George and Ha'Avoda). To add my scraps I cleared a small space in the center of the pile on the right (the compost heap), placed the scraps inside that area, and then covered all of the scraps with dry leaves (located to the left of the compost heap). Easy.

Easy, and important. Organic waste usually constitutes 30-40% of household trash, meaning 30-40% of the waste in landfills could be composted and used to foster the growth of additional plants. Meaning, our landfills could be 30-40% smaller if everyone composted their food scraps. Sounds good to me. Plus, the nutrients go back into the earth which is pretty great too.

new year, new resolutions, new blog

Those who know me know that I'm a very improbable candidate for starting a blog. I'm not a big fan of technology, am never attracted to the newest gadgets, and when it comes to drawing attention to myself I'm generally pretty shy. So why start this blog? Because I've been so inspired recently by all of the environmental blogs popping up all over the blogosphere, suggesting tips for being "green" in New York, or San Francisco, or the UK, and realized that although there are some blogs on the subject here in Israel we could definitely use some more. Hence my blog.

For those who have only recently become interested in adopting a more"green" lifestyle (and for those who haven't), I want you to know that although I was very interested in the environment and animal rights as a kid (I've been a vegetarian since I was seven years old, much to the dismay of my Moroccan grandmother who still tries to feed me lamb every chance she gets), this interest took a hiatus for some reason for many, many years and I'm new to "living green" too. So this blog will serve as an inspiration for me to figure out more ways to be green, and to share them with you.

Since I'm currently living in Tel Aviv, many of my posts might be Tel Aviv specific but I will make a definite attempt to offer more general suggestions as well. Any suggestions you have are very welcome, so please post your comments.

So welcome to Crunchy Greenola!